Archive for Creative Prompts
My New Attitude for Gratitude
As the Thanksgiving holiday grows closer, an infectious attitude of gratitude seems to be rapidly spreading across the various social media sites I utilize on a regular basis- especially post Hurricane Sandy.
I will admit that while I’ve kept journals and notebooks for all different purposes, I’ve never kept a gratitude journal until now. I started it on 11/01 after our power had come back on because I felt the need to count my blessings after the storm. I am using an orange pocket-sized dotWebbie and have decided to use one page per entry. The book will be housed on my desk and I will add to it as often as I remember.
Do you keep a gratitude journal, or have you ever considered starting one?
Art Journaling in a Rhodia Reverse Book
What is art journaling? It is a simple combination of art and writing in the same book. There are no rules except for those that you set yourself. “Art journaling has a long-standing artistic tradition. Artists through the centuries have kept notebooks in which they sketched, practiced, experimented, and recorded themselves.” via Dina Wakley. Continue Readering »
Picasso’s Sketchbook
“In the first weeks of 1907, Picasso took a slim little book – a since-battered leather wallet that was nothing much to begin with – and began to confide, day by day, his ideas about what could be done with the human figure. Sometimes the image was flat, wiry, schematic. Sometimes it had sculptural volumes, with plenty of ins and outs where ins and outs were called for. Only very rarely was a line crossed out, or a second thought as much as hinted at.” from an article in The New York Times
Want to try your hand at keeping a sketchbook? Here are a few articles to get you started:
The1901 Picasso sketch above was previously sold by The Court Gallery
Friday Link Share
What do you think of the wall of Rhodia? I think it looks like Tetris.
Post-It Iterations Take Classic Notes to New Levels at WebUrbanist
Featured Pen – TWSBI Vac 700 at Whatever
Marbled-Edge Ledgers at Notebook Stories
The Extravagant Tale of a Mere Pencil: Palomino & Blackwing at the Blog of the European Paper Company
Stockholm’s underground subway art at BBC
Delfonics Utility Bag Review at The Well-Appointed Desk
J. Herbin Vert Pre Fountain Pen Ink Cartridge Review at The Pen Addict
What Do You Do When You’re Angry? ~ Deborah Lange at Elephant Journal
New Favorite Eraser: Pentel Hi-Polymer at Little Flower Petals
Fascinating Liquid Art by Markus Reugels at abduzeedo.com
Antique E. Wolff London Pencil Lead Case on Etsy (InkLinks)
The Lost Art of Hand Lettering at Serifs & Sans
Links From Montblanc to Calligraphy to Watercolourists at An Inkophile’s Blog
Image courtesy of Eric Ink – follow ericink on Instagram.
Creative Prompt: Attention to Detail
I was never much a fan of Sherlock Holmes (in print or on film) until the recent movies starring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes, and Jude Law as Dr. Watson.
My favorite of Holmes quirks is his ability to scan a room and see EVERYTHING. Continue Readering »
Creativity Prompt: A list of 20 things
I was recently reading about an interesting mental exercise consisting of rapid image cycling of things that you’d like to have in your life. It reminded me a lot of the creative visualization techniques that I’ve read about in other books where you basically attract the thing you desire by imagining yourself already having it.
You are to create a list of 20 things that you desire, and the caveat is that each item has to be for you and only you. Continue Readering »
Try Something New: Colored Pencils
Have you ever tried writing, drawing or doodling with a colored pencil? There are several different kinds with the non-erasable wax based ones being the most common. Erasable ones do exist, though I’ve never had reason to want to try them. Watercolor pencils are probably my favorite because they can be used in many different ways. Continue Readering »
Creative Prompt: Your Favorite Things
Today is Monday, March 12th & I hereby challenge you to grab a pen and notepad and start making a list of your favorite things. List out your favorite foods, books, movies, wines, friends, places, colors, smells, songs, vacations, flowers, animals…. When you are finished, (and I know once you get going it will be difficult to stop) sign and date the bottom of the page and place your list in a safe space so one year from now you can create a new one and then place them side by side to see how your favorite things may have changed.
PS: You don’t have to wait a year…..
Image above from Kristina Day Osgood – a member of our Rhodia Journal Swap.
Keeping a Dream Journal
Can’t remember your dreams? I’ve often heard that the best way to remember them is to write down anything you can remember immediately upon waking. Much insight and inspiration can come from examining our subconscious.
To learn more about keeping a dream journal:
Benefits of Keeping a Dream Journal
Keep a Dream Journal – Why Bother?
Dream Journaling 101: How to Keep a Dream Journal
Official Call for Entries for the 2012 Rhodia Journal Swap: “Favorite Things”
It’s here! Time to roll our our first ever Rhodia Journal Swap: “Favorite Things.” Interested in participating? Read on, then please fill out the form below by Jan 18th. We’d love if you would share this opportunity with your friends! Questions? Please submit via comments. Continue Readering »
Gearing up to start the 2012 Rhodia Journal Swap!
It’s happening!!!
I am putting together the final details surrounding the 2012 Rhodia Journal Swap and expect to start searching for our 12 participants sometime next week. If you haven’t heard about the swap, we are going to be providing 12 large dotWebbie journals to a dozen creative people to utilize for a few weeks at a time, who will then mail the book on to the next person, and so on, until it reaches the last person who in turn, mails it back to the person who started that book.
The dozen participants will be sharing their creativity via a group Tumblr Blog for us all to see.
You do not have to be an “artist” or a “writer” to participate, You should however, be creative and willing to share. This swap will be open to US residents age 18 or older. An international swap may happen at a later date.
More details, including the *Theme* of the swap, to be announced soon!
Road Art
I met artist Don Colley at NAMTA’s 2011 Art Materials World conference and trade show. He was demoing at the Faber-Castell booth and happened to walk by ours during a break. His work with colored pencils was so life-like it could practically walk off the page. 
Don had used some of our larger datebooks for sketches because they lay flat. I promised to send him a Webnotebook to sample, and asked him to let me know if he liked it.
I got this email from Don the other day: “Hi Karen, I recently finished drawing in the sweet little orange leatherette covered Rhodia web notebook you sent me. I took it on tour with me this Fall and got some fun pages. Thanks again for the little book, it was well suited to cross country travel in planes and on buses. Happy Holidays.”
Please visit Don’s website – Buttnekkiddoodles-Drawing from Life in Chicago and Beyond.
Thanks, Don! Hope to see you at NAMTA 2012 in Orlando! 
Playoff Time!
Baseball season is over for me. The NY Mets are out of it—again. I wonder if I’m a glutton for punishment that I keep believing in them year after year. :(
But I love baseball, so I have been listening to the playoffs on the radio, and plan to listen tonight to the Detroit-Yankees game. The pitching match up between Doug Fister and Ivan Nova promises to be interesting. 
Professional sports photographer (and new Rhodia fan) Andrew Weber sent me this photo from Game #4 of the ALDS Yankees at Tigers. The Yankees won, forcing a Game #5. See more of his photos here.
Here’s my guess for upcoming match-ups:
AL Championship – Detroit vs. Texas
NL Championship - St. Louis vs. Milwaukee
World Series – Texas vs. St. Louis
What’s your prediction?
Creative Inspiration
A recent Wall Street Journal article – “The Biking Detective” by Alexandra Alter, described how crime writer George Pelecanos gets his inspiration and details: biking around Washington, DC on his road bike, “lingering in back alleys, cemeteries and abandoned parking lots.” “That’s really the time when I’m writing the book,” said Mr. Pelecanos. “In terms of plot, I don’t outline, I kind of search for it when I’m out here.” Mr. Pelecanos has published 17 books and worked as a writer on HBO shows “The Wire” and “Treme.” 
He is working on a new novel called “The Cut.” The main character is Spero Lucas, a 29-year-old Marine who returns from Iraq to find work as an investigator for a Washington lawyer and his shady clients. When a drug dealer wants him to recover a missing package of marijuana, Lucas demands a 40% cut, and enters into a dangerous stand-off with a criminal ex-cop named Ricardo Holley.
The article describes how the plot came together during one of Pelecanos’ daily rides. “One day, he found a squat, dark red brick bungalow near Georgia Avenue that looked like it could house a low-profile criminal like Holley. He rode around back and saw that it was protected only by a cheap, low fence. ‘You could break into it during the day and no one would know,’ he says. The details about the house–the hopable fence and the secluded back alley sparked a break-in scene in the novel that jolts the plot forward.
Reading about George Pelecanos’ creative inspiration reminded me of one of my own. I was hiking along the banks of the Delaware River, when I spotted a bone sticking out of the riverbank. I was sure it was either a relic of the historic skirmishes with the Indians, or the remains of some murder victim. I dug it out and remembering all the crime sitcoms, put it carefully in a plastic bag. I brought it to the local police station to hear it…was…a…sheep bone. Oh, well. But I remember the thrill of discovery, and all the plot lines that began to emerge.
Is your writing or creative inspiration prompted by unexpected discoveries?
Click here to read more about George Pelecanos and “The Cut.”
Art Journal Inspiration from Daisy Yellow.
Daisy Yellow blog has long been an exciting source of art inspiration for me. Tammy’s art, and the infectious way she shares it via her various projects and creative prompts makes it easy to jump right in and start creating. In the following video, Tammy demonstrates and discusses creating a two-page art journal spread in an Exacompta journal.
Pastel Chaos in the Exacompta from Tammy on Vimeo.
This second video shows Tammy flipping through a half-filled Exacompta sketchbook, and I’m sure you will quickly see one of the main reasons I am drawn to Tammy & her work.
Flip-Thru Exacompta Journal from Tammy on Vimeo.
Not familiar with the Exacompta sketch book? You can read my review on my personal blog.
